GTX 660 in SLI Good idea ?

[brandon888]

now i have EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED

it will be better to get another 660 an sli it or wait for 700 series and sell 660 to get something like 770/780 ....


as i understand with 660s in SLI i will get like 780 performance ..... it will be cheaper but there is a deal with Heat , Micro Stutter and ect ....


So does it worth to get another 660 ?



My Rig


VGA: EVGA GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED
CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K Hexa-Core 3.2-3.8 Ghz
Cool: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30
MB: ASUS P9X79
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600 MHz
HDD : W.Digital 500GB 7200RPM 64 MB Cache
PSU: Corsair TX 850W
CASE: Cooler Master's Storm Enforcer
TV: LG 32 Inch

 

[KevinH]

What games?

 

[brandon888]

What games?

BF3/BF4 .. also Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 .... idk what more

 

[Jaydip]

660 is a solid card but if you are interested in using more AA options wait for a better single gpu setup.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

With the ridiculous amount of money you spent on your CPU why would you settle for a mid range GPU? Get a couple gtx680's or 7970's and be done with it.

However, I would wait a bit to see if the rumors about a new generation pan out before buying anything.

 

[brandon888]

With the ridiculous amount of money you spent on your CPU why would you settle for a mid range GPU? Get a couple gtx680's or 7970's and be done with it.

However, I would wait a bit to see if the rumors about a new generation pan out before buying anything.

I spent 350$ on my cpu so your sarcasm makes no sence...


Is single gpu setup is a lot better and less problematic then i will wait for 760TI ....

 

[MrK6]

Is single gpu setup is a lot better and less problematic then i will wait for 760TI ....

Good man. If there's a faster single GPU setup that maintains a reasonable price/performance ratio (i.e. not Titan), always go for it. Multi-GPU should only be considered once you've exhausted all your single GPU options but still need more power.

 

[willomz]

A 760 Ti will be about the same as a 670.

660 SLI is actually a fair bit faster than that, after all it is faster than a 680/79070GE.

I mean there are a lot of advantages to a single card, but 660 SLI is a cheap option that will give you great performance and give it to you NOW.

Waiting an undetermined amount of time for a card that isn't even 'next gen' as such, could end up being frustrating.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

660s wont give 780 level performance, for practical purposes 680 level experience at best.

 

[willomz]

They seem to doing a number on the 680s over on the Unigine thread.

1372 vs 1075 for the best 680.

I've never seen a single benchmark where the 680 beats 660 SLI.
They will use slightly more power, but brandon888 has a perfectly beefy PSU.

 

[guskline]

now i have EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED

it will be better to get another 660 an sli it or wait for 700 series and sell 660 to get something like 770/780 ....


as i understand with 660s in SLI i will get like 780 performance ..... it will be cheaper but there is a deal with Heat , Micro Stutter and ect ....


So does it worth to get another 660 ?



My Rig


VGA: EVGA GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED
CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K Hexa-Core 3.2-3.8 Ghz
Cool: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30
MB: ASUS P9X79
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600 MHz
HDD : W.Digital 500GB 7200RPM 64 MB Cache
PSU: Corsair TX 850W
CASE: Cooler Master's Storm Enforcer
TV: LG 32 Inch

Have a second one on the way (MSI Twin Frozer). I have a single EVGA GTX660 SC running in a rig with an Asus Sabertooth 990FX Rev2 mb, FX 8320 OC'd to 4.3 Ghz, 8 gigs ddr3, 80G intel ssd(OS) with 500G WD blue for data. Win 8 Pro.Monitor is a 24" - 1920x1080p

The MSI just went on sale and has the Metro game option. it should be here later this week. When it's installed I'll run some benchmarks.

 

[brandon888]

660s wont give 780 level performance, for practical purposes 680 level experience at best.

lol wut 680 performance at the best ? as i know it beats 680 by 20-30% ... 780 will be about 20% faster then 680 so ....


and also one more question .... does memory bandwidth doubles in sli or will remain 144 GT/s ? ;/ as i know it doubles cause 144 GT/S sucks ..... Vram will remain 2GB i know ...

 

[guskline]

lol wut 680 performance at the best ? as i know it beats 680 by 20-30% ... 780 will be about 20% faster then 680 so ....


and also one more question .... does memory bandwidth doubles in sli or will remain 144 GT/s ? ;/ as i know it doubles cause 144 GT/S sucks ..... Vram will remain 2GB i know ...

Memory bandwidth does NOT double in SLI.

Please check your private mail.

 

[willomz]

It doesn't double, although it may be that the cards can make more efficient of the bandwidth. But that doesn't really matter, the end performance is all that matters and as you stay it usually beats the 680 quite easily, thus potentially putting it around 780/Titan LE level.

 

[guskline]

It doesn't double, although it may be that the cards can make more efficient of the bandwidth. But that doesn't really matter, the end performance is all that matters and as you stay it usually beats the 680 quite easily, thus potentially putting it around 780/Titan LE level.

I don't own a Titan and the 780s are not out yet so I won't make any comparisons to them. I will compare it to the rigs listed in my sigs below to compare.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

They seem to doing a number on the 680s over on the Unigine thread.

1372 vs 1075 for the best 680.

I've never seen a single benchmark where the 680 beats 660 SLI.
They will use slightly more power, but brandon888 has a perfectly beefy PSU.

He is talking about the experience of having something in SLI vs a single powerful card. Multi GPU setups will always have more problems than a single card. Namely microstutter and not having SLI profiles for new games meaning you might be stuck with only one card working until a driver update is released.

Sure you will get higher benchmark scores with a couple of GTX 660s over the fastest GTX 680 but the GTX 680 will always work at its full speed in every game without any driver updates. Those GTX 660s may need a new SLI profile to perform at their maximum potential. Even then the user may experience microstutter makes the experience of the game less than what the raw benchmark score tells them it should be.

Sure you pay more for a slower card with a GTX 680. But you will get a very consistent experience. This is why most people recommend getting the fastest card for their money before considering SLI.

Personally I would not recommend going SLI in this case. Those GTX 660s will be limited by memory bandwidth long before they are limited by shader power. I would wait, sell the GTX 660 when something new comes out and then buy the fastest single card you can afford at that time.

 

[nitromullet]

If you already had the cash for what a GTX 780 will probably cost (~$450-650?) you could pick up second EVGA GTX 660 that is eligible for their Step Up program http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/ and gamble that the new NVIDIA cards are released in the next 90 days. If they do launch in 90 days you can evaluate performance then and either keep the SLI rig or step up to the 7-series card and sell your current 660.

I'm considering doing this myself with my GTX 670. The only reason I have held off is because my funds are currently earmarked for an i7 4770K rig.

 

[willomz]

http://www.techspot.com/review/661-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-boost-sli/page2.html

I know 99th percentile times aren't quite the same thing as micro-stutter, but nonetheless the data for the 660 SLI looks promising and I know several people with 660 SLI who say that they don't just notice micro-stutter, subjective of course.

Yes, if you really must play new games on launch day then SLI may not be for you, but I'm sure the OP knows that. There are some other advantages though, noise is lower and even if one card develops a fault then you can still game at reduced detail.

I would recommend avoiding 660 Ti SLI due to excess shader power against bandwidth, but it just seems that 660 SLI occupies a sweet spot where everything seems to balance out quite nicely.

There are advantages to both (SLI vs 680), but if someone wants to go 660 SLI I certainly wouldn't dissuade them from it. There are some disadvantages, but I wouldn't say they outweigh the positives.

 

[brandon888]

He is talking about the experience of having something in SLI vs a single powerful card. Multi GPU setups will always have more problems than a single card. Namely microstutter and not having SLI profiles for new games meaning you might be stuck with only one card working until a driver update is released.

Sure you will get higher benchmark scores with a couple of GTX 660s over the fastest GTX 680 but the GTX 680 will always work at its full speed in every game without any driver updates. Those GTX 660s may need a new SLI profile to perform at their maximum potential. Even then the user may experience microstutter makes the experience of the game less than what the raw benchmark score tells them it should be.

Sure you pay more for a slower card with a GTX 680. But you will get a very consistent experience. This is why most people recommend getting the fastest card for their money before considering SLI.

Personally I would not recommend going SLI in this case. Those GTX 660s will be limited by memory bandwidth long before they are limited by shader power. I would wait, sell the GTX 660 when something new comes out and then buy the fastest single card you can afford at that time.

thank you for such a clear answer .... i don't mind benches ... i need smooth experience with games ... so as i see sli is not the best way for it

 

[aaksheytalwar]

If you perform x with a 680 you will need to perfect 1.3x with a 660 sli to get the same experience because of Multi gpu hassles. So 30% faster isn't a gain, it is the same experience. You need to go back to school to learn to read and comprehend. I said same experience, not the same FPS. There is no benefit of SLI unless you get at least 50-60% more FPS.

 

[willomz]

Firstly you've just plucked that 1.3x out of thin air.
Secondly 660 SLI is 30% faster on average. Practically 40% faster in BF3.

Plus he gets to save 30% cash.
So even if what you say is true, you've admitted that he gets the SAME 'experience' for less money. So why the argument for the 680?

It's not even as if the 680 has any more VRAM and not significantly more bandwidth. There might be some arguments for a 7970.

Micro-stutter? It's a known problem, but it doesn't plague all cards/games equally, sometimes that extra 30% really is giving you a better experience.

Ti version, but close enough.

 

[guskline]

Have the 660s in SLI and it's really a snappy rig.